DAILY ANIME CHARACTER INTRODUTION : IZAYA ORIHARA OF DURARARA!!

Izaya Orihara (折原 臨也, Orihara Izaya) is a powerful and skilled underground informant. He usually gives information for his own enjoyment, and claims to love the entire human race, excluding Shizuo Heiwajima. Izaya likes to start fights with him, as seen in episode 25, and then let Shizuo chase him around. He is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya (Japanese) and Johnny Yong Bosch (English). 

Personality

Izaya has the appearance and expression of one who is extremely crafty and confident, an appearance which he lives up to. He is repeatedly described as a handsome man with a beautiful face by other characters in the novels. He claims to love humanity, and greatly enjoys putting people in miserable or chaotic situations in order to observe their reactions. With a thorough understanding of human behavior and tendencies, he is able to determine people's thoughts and predict their reactions with high accuracy. Izaya is cunning and charming but despite this, women are not interested in him and he isn't very interested in women as well. He has a very jolly and mocking personality, speaking informally with most people as if they are close friends and often using nicknames (such as "Shizu-chan" for Shizuo and "Dotachin" for Kyohei Kadota). He even talks like a girl on occassion, especially online where he actually does pretend to be female. He plays on both sides, so that whoever wins, he will have an advantage. 

Although Izaya 'loves' all humans, he has no interest in loving individuals, even his own family, whom he considers as friends. In the novel, he briefly narrates in the beginning of a chapter, stating that he loves humanity, but that if an individual were to love him, he wouldn't be able to return their concentrated love, but would much rather love the individual's enemies and rivals, in a sense of dawning interest. He finishes with a short and subtle plea representing suicide (not his of course) and that he wishes for them to stay and not stop loving him, because he can't bear losing the only person who returns his love, but again, not romantically since Izaya is rather despised and it's been shown in the series, he is alone. Also, Izaya will always keep a thick wall around his heart for that person. 

In the novel, is also stated that maybe he feels lonely but at the same time satisfied. His love has been, is, and will always be unilateral. It's not that he's never been loved, however, he always denies such access to him. As long as he loves others, he feels connected to them and satisfied. When he wants to use a person, he does allow them to get close to him, but always keeps a certain distance. Even if someone tries to persuade him to change himself, he would probably never let their words sink into his heart. What Izaya feels for his own person is still a mystery. 

He also has a masochistic side, claiming that even if his beloved humans treat him like a worm, he would still 'love' them. Moreover, he adds that maybe one day he'll be able to meet someone whom he would be dying to be used by and since he's in love with all human race he could survive on his masochistic pleasure alone even if he's used. Even so, if someone were to act diffrently than he anticipated, then he might become interested in them (such as the case with Shinra). And if this person piques his interest or he enjoys to tease them that much, then he might actually show love for them while showing love for humans. So he would show some more "attention" or "physical" love for them, yet still keep an eye on his lovely human specimans. 

Izaya Orihara likes to play a twisted board game which involves moving a combination of Chess, Othello and Shogi pieces on a Chinese Go board. He plays this game by himself in his room. The combination of games may be a representation of the many plots being acted out throughout Ikebukuro, illustrating how Izaya watches over and manipulates the various people. The rules he plays by are also beyond normal people, which seems to be a metaphor for the way he lives his life. He does not think his board game is a serious representation of the world, however, as he usually prefers to observe people acting as they see fit instead of controlling them, once even setting fire to his board game in his excitement. Although Izaya enjoys conflict, often showing up wherever there is potential for one, he usually stays out of it, preferring to observe the fight instead of directly taking part in it. However, when provoked, he quickly puts his opponent in his place, simply proving his superiority without actually beating the other person. Therefore he is usually seen as the one starting fights, but hiding in the shadows instead of directly taking part. He uses a mid-lock knife (when opened a locking arm with a hook moves in to place so that the blade does not move - when closing, the metal tab on the back of the knife is pushed to release the knife from the hook) and is skilled in parkour. It is implied that Izaya is the only one capable of leaving numerous cuts in Shizuo's bartender suit after a fight in the novels. In the anime, he shaves a gang member's head bald without him noticing it. Though in the novel, and manga, Izaya states that he is atheist, however in the anime and his own elaboration of his goals, suggest that Izaya is along the lines of an agnostic, speaking of wanting a warriors death to go to Valhalla, once he starts a war in Ikebukuro, and Celty's head wakes

Background

Up until middle school in Raijin Academy, Izaya was a model student: the vice president of the elementary student council, the star at sports meetings, and winning independent research awards, poetry awards, slogan awards, and participated in essay contests. This combined with his good looks and a respectable family made him well known, especially with his girl classmates. However, Izaya was not particularly loved or hated since he went through school life in a withdrawn state, preferring to observe everything from afar, carrying out his life philosophy to be 'neither too close nor too far' from the others. 

During afternoon breaks and such, other students would talk in the classroom or play in the courtyard, but since Izaya would always be in the library, he gave people the impression that he was a loner. But Izaya enjoyed being a step away from his surroundings. He knew he was a top student, however, he didn't think the people around him were idiots and didn't look down on them. 

At this point, his observations are not used for ill, rather a simple hobby, but slowly it was turning more and more into an obsession.
His calm life changes after meeting another middle school student, Shinra, who immediately assesses Izaya's personality and tries to convince Izaya into creating a biology club. At first, he declines his offer and after that, he continued living the same life he had in elementary school, while keeping an eye on the human called Kishitani Shinra, but one day he suddenly understood: Shinra was his opposite because unlike him, he has no interest at all in human beings. This confuses Izaya who eventually agrees to become the Vice President of Shinra's club so he could study him more closely. 

When a club expo was scheduled, Shinra left their presentation entirely in Izaya's hands and, much to Shinra's surprise, Izaya turned the whole club into a gambling ring with one of the other members, Nakura, serving as Izaya's business partner. Shinra tells Izaya to stop but gets brushed off each time. One day, after making a bad bet, Nakura comes in brandishing a knife and threatens Izaya to give back all the money he lost. When Izaya refused, Shinra jumped in the way of the knife at the last minute. It is then that Izaya realizes he is extremely jealous of Shinra because of his ability to separate himself from the world because of his love for Celty. Izaya then asks Shinra to tell everyone that Izaya himself was the attacker and promises to make Nakura pay for as long as possible for what he did. After the incident, Izaya is taken into protective custody and, from then on, continues to create an infamous reputation. 

He was later enrolled in Raijin Academy High School with Shizuo, Shinra and Kadota; although, Izaya rarely attended class. He shares a passionate hatred for Shizuo and from nearly the moment they met they tried to kill eachother.  Izaya claims Shizuo is the only human he does not love and wouldn't mind seeing him dead. Shizuo tries to kill him every time they meet on the street, meaning Izaya often finds random vending machines, trash cans and other large objects flying straight at him. Shizuo finds him untrustworthy, saying whenever there is trouble, "99% of the time you're (Izaya) behind it." Izaya had often framed Shizuo for crimes he didn't commit, causing him no end of trouble. During this period, Izaya begins to collect "followers" for his own purposes, of which most are traumatized teenage girls, ranged from gothic lolitas to gyarus (though the majority of them simply took Izaya to be a fortune teller of sorts) who would do whatever he said and worshipped him in an almost cult-like fashion (like Saki). Most of them were usually depressed and/or suicidal and have all been victims of pretty severe levels of violence from their families or lovers. Those girls were lost and desperate for someone to believe in, making them especially easy to use. They weren't really in love with the families or boyfriends concerned, they simply put their faith in them. All Izaya did was shift their faith to him. If he wanted them to die, they would probably have gone ahead and died, even if they had doubts. Izaya's fans conflict between the students in several Ikebukuro high schools, leading to a protracted period of unrest. Shizuo rises to local fame after he becomes the center of this conflict despite his wish to remain outside of it. 

He is also a member of the Dollars. Although Mikado Ryuugamine is the leader of the gang, Izaya is the one who anonymously recruited most of their members when Mikado stopped doing it, sending out invitations saying the Dollars have no rules except that you have to say you are one of them. Izaya is usually seen talking about the latest rumors of gangs, urban myths, and otherwise stirring up trouble in online chatrooms while at the same time pretending to be a girl. His screennames are "Kanra" and "Nakura", and most recently "Chrome."